Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Yup! That's what I decided to title this particular post. As I sat trying to come up with a title, I thought, why do I need a title? Why not just write the post? So here I go.

Let me backtrack a bit. In April I attended a weekend retreat hosted by my Guild. It was a "UFO" retreat. You know the kind. You complete some UFOs, see other's UFOs, get inspired, start a new UFO...you know. I did manage to get a few things finished. Here's the first one.

It was my Guild's "paint chip challenge". The challenge: create a quilt no bigger than 36 inches square; colours used must have a matching paint chip; colours used must begin with the first letter of the name you are commonly known by. Here are the paint chips I chose,

and here is the resulting quilt.

On another note, I've just about got my sewing studio unpacked. Remember what it looked like? You can see the before pictures here. This is what it looks like now.

As you can see I was able to finally get the both sewing machines up. Just in time too! I had to get a postcard done for a creative studies course that I have been doing. Here is the postcard.

Interesting what a few scraps, some hand embellishing and machine stitching can do, huh? I have since attended another session and did some interesting drawing on fabric at that one. I'm supposed to come up with a piece that incorporates the pen and ink technique that we learned and present it at the next session on September 29th. But that's for another post.

That reminds me, I also have to get going on my Tangled Textiles challenge piece. I'm "open" to any ideas.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Yes, yes I know! I have not been around for a while. Did you miss me? Well I had a rather busy month in May and did some shuffling around, some packing of boxes, some "reducing, reusing and recycling". All that packing required a truck. Yup that's right! I retired and moved up country to the sunny Okanagan. Did I say sunny? It wasn't at first. It seemed that the area had been receiving an unusual amount of rain. Not as much as Calgary, but enough to ensure that the grass needed cutting every four days.

One month later I'm still unpacking, and this is what the sewing room looks like at present.

These pictures were taken two and a half weeks ago. You can see that there is not a place to set up the sewing machine. There is still some unpacking to take place, but it is taking shape. I have managed to get enough room to set up the Pfaff. Once it's all set up, I'll post the finished result.

I've also been taking an online Colour Studies class from the Gail Harker Center for Creative Studies. The studies and exercises have been a real eye opener. Now if I can just apply what I am learning to some of my projects, that would be great.

Well I best get back to unpacking. I have a postcard to finish for a class that I'm attending next Sunday, and as usual I have left it till the last minute.

About Me

I live in Vernon, British Columbia. I attempted my first quilt back in 1993, and haven't looked back. My fabric stash has grown, as have the number of quilts I have made, donated and given as gifts. Visit for a while and please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.